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Westfield Sportscars
Westfield Sportscars are manufacturers of both factory built and kit versions of several two-seater, open top sportscars. Their main product line is a Lotus Seven inspired car - vehicles originally designed by Colin Chapman with only the bare essentials for motoring in order to give the rawest and most exhilarating driving experience. History Whilst Caterham Cars bought the rights from Lotus Cars, Chris Smith set up a rival company and manufactured kits with very similar styling and construction. This led Caterham to threaten litigation (based on Industrial design rights) in the late 1980s which was eventually settled out of court and resulted in Westfield improving and changing the design of their cars. Whilst externally sharing a common look, Westfield and Caterham cars are somewhat different in construction. Westfield prefers to employ the same glass fibre body method that Lotus has traditionally used for their other models such as the Elise, Esprit, and Elan, rather than the aluminium used by Caterham. Westfield has also pioneered technical innovations such as Independent rear suspension and a wider chassis, which other manufacturers have since adopted. The company has recently introduced a version of its SEi kit that uses donor parts from the Mazda Mx5 Miata. This is generally called an SDV (Single Donor Vehicle) kit. There is also an SDV kit that uses a Ford Sierra as a donor. According to figures given to the magazine Total Kit Car, Westfield produces about 450 SEi and XTR chassis each year. In the first series of BBC's Top Gear, a Westfield XTR2 driven by the black Stig set a faster lap time than the reigning record holder of that series, the Pagani Zonda. In December 2006, Westfield became a part of Potenza Sports Cars Limited.Autoindustry news item on sale to Potenza In December 2007, it was announced that GTM Cars also became a part of Potenza Sports Cars. Models *FW400 *Megabusa *Megablade *SE *SEi & Sport *SEiGHT *SDV *Sport Turbo *XTR2 *XTR4 *XI Racing models *AeroSport *AeroRace Prototypes and concept cars *TRZ *Topaz Image:Westfield 25 logo small.png|Westfield 25th Anniversary Logo Image:Westfield prelit seven.png|A 'Pre-Lit' Westfield Seven Image:Westie Left.jpg|A 1997 Westfield SEi Image:Silver_westfield_sport_at_Stoneleigh_2008.JPG|Westfield Sport Image:Black_westfield_sport_at_Stoneleigh_2008.JPG|Westfield Sport Image:Westfield XI.png|Westfield XI Image:Westfield_xtr2.png|Westfield XTR2 Image:Westfield_race_engine_at_Stoneleigh_2008.JPG|Westfield Race Engine Image:WestfieldPhoenixPark.jpg|Irish Westfield SEi Image:Westfield_Megabusa.jpg|Westfield Megabusa Image:Westfield11interior.jpg|Westfield XI cockpit Image:Westfield Seight.jpg|Westfield Seight See also * Lotus Cars * Caterham Cars References External links Official * Westfield Sportscars Ltd. * Information on the current Westfield XI * Information on the current Westfield XTR2 Clubs & Forums * Westfield Sports Car Club - Black Country Area * Westfield Sports Car Race Drivers Association * Westfield Sports Car Club * Westfield XTR2 Forums * Westfield versus Caterham on youtube * FM Westfield builder forum Resources * Pictures, info and Technical help on Westfield Sports Cars * Information on Westfield kit cars and other kit car manufacturers Build Diaries * John Williams's Westfield - An example of a builders website * A nut & bolt account of rebuilding a Westfield - by Paul Crisp * Mellow Yellow - A build up of a Vauxhall powered Seiw Westfield - by Tigger * A build up of a Sierra based SDV - by Rob Sims Racing * BARC Westfield Championship * New race formula for 2008 in The Netherlands Category:Motor vehicle manufacturers of the United Kingdom Category:British racecar constructors Category:Sports car manufacturers Category:Kit car manufacturers Category:Lotus Seven replicas Category:Cars of England Category:Westfield Sportscars Category:Companies of the United Kingdom